Contact lenses with circuits : Electronic contact lens

If you’ve ever wanted to be a Terminator or the Bionic Woman , new research at University of Washington may at least let you see with their eyes.

Engineers at the University of Washington have for the first time used manufacturing techniques at microscopic scales to combine a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.

Image : Contact lenses with metal connectors for electronic circuits were safely worn by rabbits in lab tests. Credit: University of Washington

“Looking through a completed lens, you would see what the display is generating superimposed on the world outside,” said Babak Parviz, a UW assistant professor of electrical engineering. “This is a very small step toward that goal, but I think it’s extremely promising.”

The prototype device contains an electric circuit as well as red light-emitting diodes for a display, though it does not yet light up. The lenses were tested on rabbits for up to 20 minutes and the animals showed no adverse effects.